Broken World, Broken Lives
by BabySnowLeopard
Summary: Rae is just an average farm girl living a normal life, until one day when a creeper blows a hole in the walls and the village is overrun with monsters. Rae and the few other survivors must learn to survive in a world where their way of life has been turned completely upside-down and survival is a struggle. [Content warning for graphic violence, death, suicide, and mild language.]
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

I set foot outside, feeling the cool, crisp nighttime breeze against my skin. The full moon illuminated the landscape beautifully, and the dewdrops on the grass and the leaves of trees, glistening under the moonlight, gave the night an almost magical feel. It filled me with a sense of calm and peace that I hadn't felt for a long time.

Of course, I knew the peace of the night was only an illusion. I wasn't out here to experience the serenity of a peaceful night – though I longed that someday I could. No, I knew it was dangerous, even life-threatening, to go outside at night, yet I had a reason to be out here. The danger of the night was exactly why I was here.

No, I'm not a thrill-seeker or a daredevil, nor was I out here on some important mission that required me to risk my life. I was just done. Done with pain, done with suffering, done with fear, done with struggling to survive, done with loss, done with grief, done with life, done with everything – and this seemed like the easiest way to die and have my death look like an accident. After all, it technically isn't suicide if something else kills me.

I wandered away from our base, hearing the groaning of zombies, hissing of spiders, and ratline bones of skeletons as I travelled aimlessly into the distance. As I walked, I found myself wondering how I would go. I hoped a creeper would take me out. It'd be quick and painless; I'd be dead in an instant.

Then I thought about Sam. I knew she'd be devastated when I died. We had been best friends for nearly our whole lives. On top of that, I was the only surviving friend she had left. Then again, perhaps she felt the same way as me and would find relief in my death, knowing she wouldn't be hurting anyone if she killed herself as well.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I cursed under my breath and pulled the arrow out of my shoulder, watching the blood begin to pour out. I felt another sharp pain as another arrow scratched my neck, and it felt like it cut deep. It hurt like hell, but I knew that at least I'd bleed out more quickly from a neck wound. As I continued getting shot at by the skeleton's arrows, I really wished I'd chosen a better way to go. I didn't anticipate I'd die in such a slow and painful way.

However, just as I was feeling very weak from blood loss, I heard the familiar hiss of a creeper behind me…


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

My life wasn't always so bad. In fact, I used to live a normal, happy life. I grew up on a farm, and my brothers and I had helped our parents out on the farm since as soon as we could walk. Living on the farm was hard work, and we never had much money, but we were all happy.

I never had a lot of friends, besides my best friend Sam, but I wasn't a loner or an outcast. I loved to be around people and didn't like being alone much. I just valued my family above others. Apart from Sam, I didn't care much to seek the company of anyone who wasn't family.

So, what happened to make me so miserable I just couldn't go on living anymore? That's a long story, but it all started on one night I hate to remember…

It started out as a normal evening. I was helping my mother wash the dishes after supper, as I did most evenings.

"Rachel, dearie, did you remember to feed the chickens this evening?" she asked me.

"Sorry, Ma, I forgot!" I answered. I felt a little guilty for forgetting that it was my turn to feed the chickens today. "I'll go feed them now!"

"No, Rae, you stay here and help me do the dishes." Then, in a louder voice, she called out, "Matthew, could you go feed the chickens please?"

"Yes, Ma!" I heard my brother reply from another room.

"Rachel," my mother said to me again. "You have to remember to do your chores. You know it's important that everyone does their fair share of work."

"I know, Ma…" I replied, not taking my eyes off the plate I was scrubbing, as I felt too ashamed to make eye contact. Although I rarely forgot to do my chores, it was always seen as a big deal when anything was forgotten.

"Good, now –" Her words were cut off by the sound of a loud explosion from outside. Instinctively, we all dashed outside to see what had happened – and what I saw was a haunting image I'll never get out of my mind. There was Mattie, lying on the ground, severely injured and disfigured from the explosion. His body lay still amidst the debris of what was once the fence and chicken coop, covered in burns and scrapes. A large, sharp fragment of wood was lodged into his skull. His arms and legs were in strange positions, probably dislocated by the blast, and his head was tilted sharply, as if his neck had been snapped. It was a horrific sight, and I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

My mother ran up to him and picked him up, clutching her dead son in her arms and sobbing manically. My father, although he was probably just as devastated as she was, went over to her to try to comfort her. My surviving brother and I stayed put, frozen with shock.

I felt a hand gently rest on my shoulder and looked to see who was there. It was Sam.

"Rae, I'm so sorry…" she said sympathetically, pulling me into a tight hug. "Are you okay"? I honestly didn't know how to answer that. I was still too in shock to know what I was feeling or if I was even feeling anything at all.

"I don't know," I managed to respond after a long moment of speechless silence.

"Are you hurt at all?" she asked me. I shook my head. "Well, that's good," she said. "I'm just so glad you're safe!"

Just then, we heard a man shouting, "Attention, everyone! A creeper blew a hole in the wall! Everyone stay indoors and take cover!" Sam immediately took hold of my hand and ran inside with me, slamming the door shut behind us.

"We should be safe here," she said, trying to be reassuring. "But we should barricade the door just in case."

"Wait! My family's still out there!" I exclaimed.

"Rae, I know you want your family to be safe, but we can't risk our lives trying to save them!"

"Yes, we can!" I protested. "And we should!" By this point, I wasn't feeling numb anymore. I was feeling two distinct feelings – fear and anger. Fear for my family, who might not survive if we deserted them for our own sake, and anger towards Sam, who I never thought I could get mad at, for suggesting that leaving my remaining family behind was the right thing to do.

Our argument was interrupted by a loud banging on the front door. Before either of us could react, the door was broken down, and I saw the silhouette of my mother in the doorway. She groaned and walked haphazardly toward us. As she approached us, I noticed that her skin had turned greenish and rotten, and the room became filled with the foul stench of rotting flesh.

No, this couldn't be happening. I'd heard about zombies, those rotten, once-human creatures that roamed outside the walls at night, but never had I seen one for myself. I was frozen with terror, not wanting to believe this was real, as my zombified mother approached me.

Suddenly, she collapsed and hit the ground with a loud thud. Keith, my brother, stood over her limp, rotting figure with a wooden shovel in his hands.

"Rae, Sam, it isn't safe here!" he warned us. "You girls go find somewhere safe! I'll get the axe from the shed and help protect the village."

"No, Keith, you can't!" I protested. "Go find Pa and help us find somewhere safe!"

"Rae, I'll be fine," he said, trying to reassure me, though I could see the fear in his eyes and hear the doubt in his voice. "I'm just doing what I have to do. Don't worry about me."

"No, please…" I begged, trying to fight back tears. I wasn't willing to let another family member risk his life, even to save us.

"Rae, come on…" Sam tried to encourage me. "We can go back to my house if it's safe." She helped me up, and we went outside.

Frighteningly, the village was already swarming with monsters. There was no way we would be able to make it to Sam's house safely.

"Come on, let's just hide in the shed!" Sam shouted, grabbing my hand and running into the small toolshed next to our house with me. We slammed the door shut and barricaded it with everything we could. Sam said she hoped we'd survive the night. I just wanted to wake up and realize all this had been nothing but a terrible nightmare.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I awoke slowly to the first beams of sunlight filtering inside. I normally felt well-rested and awake in the mornings, but not this morning. I just felt tired and groggy and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep for a while longer. I knew I had chores to do, but a little extra sleep wouldn't hurt, right? I rolled over so I was facing away from the sunlight, hoping to fall back to sleep.

That was when I realized that, instead of being in my comfortable bed, I was lying on a hard, cold floor. Had I fallen out of bed somehow in my sleep? I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't in my bedroom at all, but in the toolshed. Sam was lying next to me, still fast asleep.

Frightening images from last night flooded my mind. Hearing the loud bang from indoors. Mattie dead, bloodied, and disfigured in the aftermath of the explosion. My mother, turned into a zombie, aggressively coming toward me. Keith killing her and standing over her rotting corpse. The village swarming with hideous monsters.

I remembered last night, desperately wishing that none of this was real. Worrying about Keith and our father, not knowing if they'd survive the night. Hearing the sounds of the monsters outside, terrified they might break in and kill us, yet wondering if that would even be a bad thing anymore. Not having any hope of sleeping until I was so exhausted I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

Now, here I was, the next morning, still alive. I'd survived the night, and so had Sam. I looked over at her. She was still asleep. She looked so peaceful, considering all that had just happened.

I heard a loud banging on the door, accompanied by the groaning of a zombie. I desperately hoped it wouldn't make its way inside. Suddenly, it stopped, and I could faintly hear what sounded like the crackling of flames. If there really was a fire outside, that was bad. A wooden shed was not a safe place to be during a fire. If it caught fire, we'd be in real danger.

"Sam! Wake up!" I shouted as I began moving the tools, crates, barrels, and other items we'd used to barricade the door last night. She didn't respond. I turned around and saw that she was still fast asleep. "Sam!" I shouted again, louder this time, trying to wake her up. She shifted position slightly but didn't get up.

"Hmm… what's up?" she mumbled sleepily. "Can't we get some more sleep?" She opened her eyes and, upon seeing the mostly-dismantled barricade, bolted upright and exclaimed, much more alert, "What happened to our barricade?"

"Sam, I think there's a fire outside!" I replied. "We have to get somewhere safer!"

"We should just stay here!" she answered back. "As long as the shed doesn't catch fire, we're safer in here than out there!" I could see the panic on her face even though she was trying to conceal it.

Despite her protests, I pulled the door open, pushing aside all the clutter that had previously blocked it shut. To my surprise, there was no fire nearby, but, oddly enough, there was a charred and rotting corpse right outside the doorway. Strangely, nothing else nearby appeared to have been burned, not even the grass beneath it. There were a few other small fired off in the distance that looked like they might be burning out. I turned back to Sam, who had not come to look outside but was still frantically trying to warn me against going outside.

"Sam, calm down!" I said to her. "I think it's safe. There's no fire, just a dead zombie." Not moving from her spot, she reached for a spade that was lying on the floor near her and prepared to throw it, all the while staring in my direction.

"Rae, watch out!" she yelled, throwing the spade as hard as she could. I heard a hissing sound behind me, but then the spade flew right past my head – I was lucky it didn't hit me – and the hissing stopped. Startled by the incident, I turned around to see what was behind me and saw an ugly green monster. It had four short legs yet had an upright stature, no arms, and a distinct facial expression that appeared to be a mixture of malice and malcontent. Sam promptly ran up from behind me and whacked it on the head with a shovel, knocking it unconscious. She hit it hard a few more times to make sure it was dead.

"What the hell was that for?" I asked, annoyed. "You could've really hurt me if that spade had hit me instead!"

"Rae, c'mon, I just saved your life!" She had a point, but, still, she could've chosen a less risky way to take out that thing behind me, or at least given me some fair warning first. I was pulled out of my thoughts when she spoke up again. "So, I think this is what they call a creeper," she said, nudging the creature with her foot, "I've heard about these things. They sneak up on you silently and then… BOOM!" She made an 'exploding' gesture with her hands on the word 'boon'. Well, I guess that explained the mysterious explosion that killed Mattie yesterday.

"Whoa, the town is a disaster…" Sam observed, looking out toward the ruins of our village. Most of the buildings were intact, though some had been damaged, most likely from creeper explosions – we'd heard several throughout the night. The most shocking thing was the dead bodies lying around. I didn't even want to see if I recognized any of them. "I hope my family's still alive…" she wondered out loud as she walked away, presumably toward her house.

"Sam, hold up," I said to her. "It's dangerous out there. Don't go off alone." I went back into the shed in search of something I could use as a weapon. I took a wooden hoe – while I doubted it would make a great weapon, it'd surely be better than nothing. "Come on," I said, walking back out of the shed. "Let's go now."

Taking the first steps outside was terrifying. I didn't know what might be lurking around any corner. It seemed safe enough, though, but there was no telling whether the village was really as safe as it looked.

Luckily, we made it to Sam's house safely – but no further. When we arrived, we saw that the door was wide open. That couldn't be a good sign. Sam cautiously walked inside and shortly let out a loud scream. I ran inside to see what had happened, desperately hoping she was okay, and saw her bashing a seemingly-alive skeleton with her shovel until it collapsed.

"Sam!" I exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered. "This sucker didn't even get a chance to hit me!"

"How's your family?" I asked, hoping her family had fared better than mine.

"I don't know," she replied. "I just hope they're okay…" She sounded worried. "Mom? Dad? Katie?" she called out. No one answered. She went up the stairs to look for her family, gripping the shovel she was holding tightly, ready to strike if any more monsters tried to attack. I followed behind her.

"No…"


End file.
